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February 2023, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) recently said, had been the warmest since 1901 with the average maximum temperature at nearly 29.54°C. While February — considered ‘spring’ and a ‘winter month’ by the IMD — usually posts temperatures in the low 20s, it is also apparent that there has …

Things aren’t looking too good for coral reefs. They’re suffering from bleaching, overfishing and are being cooked by warming oceans. Coral reefs are essentially just big limestone structures built by thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps. They’re found in more than 100 countries, and just like pina coladas, they …

A steep price increase of over 100% from prepandemic levels of certain raw materials for essential drugs — called active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) — has raised eyebrows in the industry. Interestingly, the sharp hike — which should have corrected by now with the improvement in supply chain and logistics — …

eSanjeevani app, a free telemedicine service run by the Centre, a ‘lifesaving app’ for the common man. In his monthly radio broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the PM said more than 10 crore people have availed tele-consultation through the app till date. ESanjeevani is becoming a lifesaving app for the commonman …

Two major indigenous defence projects — the acquisition of 70 basic trainer aircraft for the IAF and three cadet training ships for the Navy — worth almost ₹10,000 crore were cleared by the cabinet committee on security. The 70 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft will be supplied by defence PSU …

It is the fifth of a series of 12 post-budget webinars organized by the government to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that India of the 21st century is constantly empowering its …

Last year, the U.S. government passed the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act 2.0. The move is expected to boost the research and development of ‘organ chips’ — small devices containing human cells that are used to mimic the environment in human organs, including blood flow and breathing movements, serving …

Bank credit growth slowed down to 16.8% in the October-December 2022 period from a year earlier, RBI data showed. This compares with 17.2% seen in the previous quarter, according to the quarterly statistics on bank deposits and credit, released by the Reserve Bank of India. A year earlier, credit growth …

The burgeoning problem of managing e-waste is a cross cutting and persisting challenge in an era of rapid urbanisation, digitalisation and population growth. The first set of e-waste Rules was notified in 2011 and came into effect in 2012. An important component of the Rules (2011) was the introduction of …

The One District One Product (ODOP) programme under Department of Commerce (DoC) and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry is aimed at creating sustainable employment at the district level while promoting holistic socio-economic development. The idea is to select, brand, and promote …

In order to further the existing cooperation in the realm of maritime safety and security, IFC-IOR signed an MoU on 21 Feb 2023 with Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC), Seychelles. IFC-IOR, hosted by the Indian Navy, was established by the Government of India at Gurugram on 22 Dec 2018 to …

The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy report was released by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The report was released at #TheIndiaDialog organised by Institute for Competitiveness and US-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University, on February 23 & 24, 2023. The second edition of the State of …

India’s research and development (R&D) expenditure-GDP ratio of 0.7% is very low when compared to major economies and is much below the world average of 1.8%. The main reason is the low investment in R&D by the corporate sector. While the corporate sector accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic …

India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues grew 12.7% in January to hit almost ₹1.59 lakh crore, the second highest monthly collections on record, as per revised figures from the Finance Ministry. Earlier estimates of GST revenues for January had pegged collections at about ₹1.56 lakh crore till the evening …

A man became the third person to have been “cured of HIV” after a bone marrow transplant carrying a specific HIV-resistant mutation. The CCR5-delta 32 mutation prevents the receptors used by the HIV virus from forming on the surface, effectively denying the virus its doorway to the body. It is …

Enterprises require AI platforms that are designed to run on on-premises equipment and are also cloud-enabled. By offloading the naturally compute-intensive AI algorithms to advanced high-performance servers in the cloud, companies can free up their on premium capacity for more traditional EDA workloads. AI and ML workloads in EDA and …

Gordon Moore came up with Moore’s Law in 1965, suggesting that every two years; computational progress would become faster, smaller and more efficient. Today, as we stand amidst the digital revolution that has fundamentally altered the foundational concepts of the electronics industry, the hunger for more capabilities and higher performance …

Old vehicles of the Union and state governments would be scrapped under the vehicle scrapping policy. He also said the government has made a provision of ₹3,000 crore in the 2023-24 budget to encourage vehicle scrapping. Vehicle scrapping policy is an important part of the green growth strategy.  ‘Green growth …

Seeking to ensure green energy growth of India, stakeholders from across the globe, were invited to invest in renewable energy and related sectors, and said the potential of solar, wind and biogas in India is no less than any gold mine or oil field for the private sector. “The Budget …

The Centre is expected to clarify, later this year, the specifics of a carbon trading market in India. An amendment to the Energy Conservation Act, passed in 2022 and, separately, approval by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change via the Paris and Glasgow agreements ensured that carbon markets (where …